Mistletoe could have cancer benefit

MISTLETOE could have greater powers beyond inspiring people to pucker up beneath its boughs at Christmas, medical researchers claim.

Researchers at Adelaide University are studying whether the festive foliage may have medicinal components that could be beneficial for colon cancer sufferers.

Different types of mistletoe extract are already authorised for use in some European countries, but not in Australia.

University of Adelaide health sciences honours student Zahra Lotfollahi compared three different types of mistletoe extract and chemotherapy on colon cancer cells in the lab.

She found one extract from ash trees, Fraxini, was highly effective against colon cancer cells and gentler on healthy intestinal cells, compared with chemotherapy.

Ms Lotfollahi said Fraxini was the only extract that showed a reduced impact on healthy intestinal cells.

University of Adelaide Professor Gordon Howarth, the student's supervisor and a Cancer Council senior research fellow, said although mistletoe had been considered a viable alternative therapy overseas, it was important to understand the science behind it.

Mistletoe extract has been tested on cancer patients in numerous international clinical studies, mostly in Europe but also in Israel and more recently in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute in the US.

The NCI states that although mistletoe was often found to be therapeutically effective, many of the studies had major weaknesses including small numbers of patients, which raised doubts about the reliability of the research.

The mistletoe plant is highly poisonous and should never be taken orally.